Of Dishes And Discussions
by frangipani blossom
Summary: Takes place right after 'Insecurity'. Wally's still at Mount Justice and Dick comes to talk with him about the failed mission and Wally's reaction afterwards. Rated T just to be safe...


**Hi, guys, I'm finally back after almost a whole year's pause (man, I had some HUGE writer's blockade... it hasn't vanished completely yet)!**

**Soo... first story for this fandom... I'm feeling kinda whelmed ;) I wrote this because I actually missed Robin in this episode (though it is an really asterous episode, seriously!)...**

**I hope you enjoy it :)**

**By the way, English isn't my mother tongue; so in case you spot any mistakes, feel free to correct me ;)**

Of Dishes And Discussions

"Crap!" Wally hissed, quickly holding his hand below the cold water that was coming from the faucet.

The red-haired speedster was still at Mount Justice, cooking dinner.

He hadn't wanted to go home, not in the bad mood he was in currently, which would have resulted in his mother asking him what had happened and he certainly didn't want to talk about it right now. Therefore he simply had decided to stay a little longer, so that he had some time to cool down.

He glared angrily at the tomato sauce, the reason why he had burnt himself.

At least, _she_ wasn't here; otherwise _she_ would have made fun of how he, as a speedster, couldn't dodge a simple drop of hot sauce.

But s_he_ had vanished as soon as possible after the confrontation...

"Robin. B01," the mechanical voice of the zeta-beam announced the arrival of Wally's best friend.

Wally sighed. Great, just when he wanted to be alone... at least, Rob couldn't go all ninja on him...

Speaking of the devil, the Boy Wonder entered the kitchen: "Hey, Wally. What are you cooking? Spaghetti?"

The speedster only nodded, carefully avoiding the hot drops of tomato sauce that boiled in a cooking pot next to the one with the noodles and turned the heat a little down.

Robin simply ignored Wally's lack of communication and went on chattily: "Mhm. This smells really good. Can I have some when it's done?"

The ginger rolled his eyes unnerved: "Gee, you would think that Alfred doesn't feed you...-"

"Wally! Supey could hear you!" Robin cut Wally off hastily.

"Don't worry. He and M'gann are out for a walk with Wolf... and Zatanna and Kal have already gone to bed," the red-head calmed his friend.

The partner of Batman seemed relieved: "Oh, okay."

Then he turned more serious: "But you really have to be careful what you're saying; if anyone finds out my secret identity because of your_ hints_... I assume that Batman wouldn't be too happy about that..."

A shiver ran down Wally's spine.

"Okay, okay... I got it..." the red-head yielded, putting his hands up in defense.

Robin just shrugged it off: "No harm done."

Before Wally could respond, the timer beeped, signaling that the spaghetti were done. A second later, two plates of noodles with hot tomato sauce were standing on the counter; one plate filled with a normal portion, the other was brimmed ;next to the plates were laying two forks.

"Cheese?" The red-haired speedster offered his friend a package grated cheese.

Robin nodded and took the cheese.

The two friends ate (or in Wally's case inhaled) their meals silently.

When he was finished, Wally started playing with his fork, trying to ignore his best friend's intense stare.

He didn't last long.

"So... you already heard about the mission?" Wally asked, breaking the silence.

"Well,... Kaldur reported the whole... _incident_ to Batman and I kinda... heard it, too-"

"Which means you eavesdropped, right?"

"Depends on your definition of 'eavesdropping'..."

"So you got caught?"

"Maybe..." Robin mumbled, staring intently at his empty plate.

Wally grinned, shaking his head in disbelief: "After all these years you really should know that there is no way to sneak up on the Bat..."

"That doesn't matter right now; I still got to listen to Kal's report-"

"Wait, so you're telling me that Batman allowed you to stay after he discovered you _eavesdropping_? So not fair!" Wally shouted out, folding his arms across his chest.

"I had a good argument..."

"Which was...?"

"Well, because I'm the leader of the team occasionally, I have every right to know what's going on when I'm not with you on a mission-"

"And that worked?" The young speedster raised an eyebrow, disbelieving.

Robin simply shrugged his shoulders: "Kinda... with some _limitations_, though..."

"You have to wash the Batmobile for a month, right?" The redhead couldn't suppress a grin.

The little bird sighed: "**Yes**, I have to wash the Batmobile; are you happy now?"

"Well, not exactly happy - but a little satisfied...yeah," Wally smirked.

The Boy Wonder rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses: "Whatever. So Kal told Batman and me how the entire mission went-"

"You rather mean _failed_," the protégé of the Flash interjected.

Robin didn't object, but instead went on: " -and how pissed off you were later-"

"Of course I was pissed_ –_ because of Artemis's stupid behavior the whole mission went downhill!" Wally shouted angrily.

The raven-haired stayed unfazed by his best friend's outburst.

"Come on, we both know that this isn't what is bothering you. It's not like you never messed up a mission because of _your_ misbehavior," he stated simply.

Wally's anger dissipated immediately.

"I know," he sighed low-spirited, running a hand through his already messy hair.

"So?" Robin inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know... I guess I just reacted so badly because I felt stupid..." the ginger shrugged helplessly.

"Because...?"

"Well, you know, I already noticed that Artemis felt insecure because of Roy joining the team; so I talked to her and told her that she never actually had been a replacement for Roy and that she had nothing to prove – at least not to me."

The speedster sighed once again, then continued: "And she seemed genuine relieved about that... and throughout the whole mission Spee- Red Arrow treated her absolutely unfair and I stood up for her and I really, actually thought that this meant at least a little to her, considering how harshly I had judged her in the beginning... and then she pulls this 'I'm going solo'-thing off, making the whole mission going south... - I feel like a fool for thinking that my opinion actually matters to her!" Wally shouted, sounding distraught.

Robin shifted uncomfortably; he had a pretty logical assumption why Artemis had behaved the way she had. The only problem was, that it was because of her secret ID and **he** certainly wouldn't be the one to tell anyone (especially Wally) about it...

He decided to stay on neutral ground; hinting something but never actually giving anything away : "I don't think that your opinion doesn't matter to her; I rather think that she wanted to prove to herself and Roy -Roy in particular, I guess- that she is worthy enough to be in this team and-"

"You know something that I don't know of, right?" Wally interrupted the younger boy's stuttering.

Dick knew that there was no point lying to his best friend: "Yeah."

"And you really think that this affects her so much?" Wally asked, truly interested in his friend's opinion.

The raven-haired crime-fighter nodded slowly: "Yeah, I think that it affects her so much."

"That bad, huh?"

"Pretty much, yes."

"So you think I should ignore the fact that it was her fault that made the whole mission a disaster?" Wally asked, not entirely convinced.

Dick only shrugged his shoulders: "It's your decision. I'd just advise you not to treat Artemis as harshly as you did before; it had been pretty unfair..."

"I know, I know..." Wally interrupted his pal; he really didn't have to be reminded of that.

Once again, silence fell upon the two friends.

Unable to stay still any longer, Wally grabbed his and Dick's empty plates and headed for the sink.

"Soo... who's going to wash the dishes?" Dick asked, smirking.

"Well, since I'm the one who cooked, it leaves you to do the dishes," the speedster stated the obvious.

No objection came from the younger boy.

That made Wally suspicious and when he turned around – he saw an empty space.

"Robin. B01." the voice of the zeta-beam confirmed Wally's assumption; the little bird had already departed.

"Damn ninja-skills..." Wally sighed, shaking his head half in resignation and half in amusement.

One day, he will get Batman's protégé to wash the dishes... one day for sure...

End

**Like it, hate it?**

**I'm very unfortunate to have not read a single comic book in my entire life (I doubt that Donald Duck pocket books count; or do they?)... Therefore, I just know about the characters what is shown in the tv show or can be read on wikipedia... so I'm quite self-conscious about this... Reviews of any kind would make me very happy :)**

**Yay! I just found out that Robin and I have something in common: we are both great at avoiding washing the dishes... ^^**


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